Winter Magic

 

I don't know how long I've had the Winter Magic pattern. During my short stint as a director of care, I wanted to make it bigger and hang it on the wall in my office at work during the winter season. That was nearly 7 years ago and I never did get around to making it before I lost the job. So, I likely have had the pattern for at least 10 years, long enough that the pattern is no longer available from Patchworks Studio. And most, if not all, of the fabrics for it for almost as long.
I love bling and bling-y fabrics. So, I started collecting bling-y blue fabric to use in this project. All but the darkest blue have sparkles/shimmer. The white is a Michael Miller Fairy Frost with sparkles. I actually planned on saving that one for a different project, although I don't think I had a specific project in mind. 😁 But I decided it would look great in this snowflake themed wall hanging. After all, what is more sparkly than a new fallen snow on a sunny day?
But I am very thankful that I didn't decide to make it bigger. It was incredibly labour-intensive. I estimated that it probably took me 11-12 hours just to stitch down all the snowflakes. And that's not including all of the tracing, applying fusible web, and cutting. However, in spite of the fact that there are 40 snowflakes on this wall hanging, I actually only had to cut out 20. That's because this is a "Give and Take" appliqué project. I used this technique once before, in Celtic Ballad. 
Basically, it works like this: trace the design onto a piece of fusible web cut to the dimensions indicated in the pattern. Fuse it to the back of a piece of fabric the same size. Carefully cut out the design. I say carefully because you will be using both the original piece of fabric and the piece you cut from it, so no just snipping happily and carelessly into the fabric. Fuse the original to a piece of coordinating fabric of the same size, and the cut out piece to another piece of fabric as indicated in the pattern. So, all of the larger pieces of fabric (7" x 12" unfinished size) with the white snowflakes are actually the original fabrics to which the design was fused and from which the snowflakes were cut. These large pieces were then fused to 7" x 12" pieces of the white fabric, so that the white shows through. And then the blue snowflakes were fused elsewhere. There is a LOT of Heat'N'Bond in this quilt top, including in the seams! Ten 7" x 12" pieces! So it's very stiff. 
Then all of those snowflakes had to be stitched down, which was quite tedious. It's not like stitching down a nice circle or square. No, snowflakes have all kinds of points and corners and angles, requiring moving the fabric this way and that while stitching. It was bad enough with the snowflakes on the main body of the wall hanging. They could at least be stitched down on the individual pieces of fabric. But when it came to the ones that are in the border, I had to wait until the quilt top was finished before I could fuse and appliqué them. That meant moving around the whole quilt top while stitching! So those snowflakes took even longer. 

Finally that was finished and then came the quilting. I had determined to use a silver metallic for the quilting and the Deb's Snowflakes Meander pantograph. It's quite pretty, but it's 15.5" wide - really stretching the limits of the throat space on my Amara! I've used it once before, in the Christmas Medallion quilt, which is 60" square, but I wouldn't really want to go any bigger than that. So, I knew it was doable. I just had to have my starting point up tight to the back of the throat space. 
But the width of the pantograph wasn't the biggest issue. It was the metallic thread. I had used it once or twice before, but that was several years ago. And, other than knowing that the tension needed to be looser, I couldn't remember what else I needed to adjust. So I watched a Handi Quilter video and made adjustments as I saw fit. But the thread kept breaking. I suspect that the abundance of fusible web in the quilt top may have been a big factor. I was also using some anonymous prefilled bobbin, and after adjusting multiple other things, I finally decided to change the bobbin thread and switched to Glide 60. It stitched much better after that, but broke once more before finishing the row. Then I asked for advice in the Handi Quilter community group on Facebook and I got some hints, some worthwhile and some not so much. But I put a line of Sewer's Aid up the side of the cone of thread and didn't have another thread break after that. I'm not sure if it was the Sewer's Aid or the fact that my machine was liking the Glide 60 much better. But I finished the quilting last evening. Being a wide pantograph, it only took 3 rows (2 full rows and a part row) of quilting. It is a pretty labour-intensive pantograph, with all of the points, angles and straight lines, but I needed to go slowly anyways because of using metallic thread. 

It wasn't until I was working with the quilt this morning to put the binding and label on that I realized that there were a lot of loopy messes on the back. So, obviously my top thread was a little too loose. But I'm just not going to worry about it. It is a wall hanging after all, and the loopy messes will be facing the wall. The top stitching looks fine. And the wall hanging is mine, so I don't have to worry about gifting inferior work. And I guess I better not plan on entering it into any fairs! It will be my January wall hanging in my monthly rotation of wall hangings. But I have it up in my living room now so that I can enjoy it for awhile after putting all of that work into it, and not have to wait until next January. 
Now, I have to decide on a table treatment for January. I have some ideas, but that can wait until next time. 

Family

 

I very rarely make the same quilt more than once. To me, that would be boring. I like new challenges and different techniques. and I always sort of scratch my head when someone says that they've made X number of this particular quilt pattern. But this quilt has a very special purpose. And so I made 5 of them. 
My siblings and I have lost both our parents, Mom in 1998 and Dad in 2000. In 2009, we lost our only brother. And in October 2023, we lost our second oldest sister, Judy. She was the one who stepped into the matriarchal role once our mother passed away, and I can honestly say that she was everyone's favourite sister. It's been very hard. And most of us live quite far apart. My youngest sister is in Nova Scotia, two sisters in Ontario, one in Michigan and me in Alberta. In spite of the distances, we are still close. And we miss each other. So, when I saw this fabric during a sale in my LQS,

I figured it needed to be in a very special quilt. Mulling it over, I decided to make each of us remaining sisters a quilt, a snuggle-sized quilt with a minky backing, something we can cuddle up in when we're missing each other. 
I wanted to use everyone's favourite colour to represent them in the quilts. But first I had to find out what those favourite colours were. A few of us were easy: Dad's favourite had always been red, Judy's had always been green and mine has always been purple. When we were younger, my youngest sister Cindy's favourite had been blue, and my next older sister Janet's favourite had been pink. But some people change over time, and when I had asked for favourites for a different project, Cindy had said jewel tones and fire engine red, and for Janet, it was coral and aqua, while Therese (oldest) and Nancy (middle) had said something similar like red, blue and yellow. Or something like that. But I had had to have them narrow it down to one specific colour each. Cindy surprised me by picking dark purple. Janet went with aqua. Therese said sunshine yellow (had to be a very specific yellow) and Nancy said muted grey. Opinions varied on what colour should represent our mother. Pink, purple, fuchsia were suggested, and I settled on something that appeared to be a combination of those. 

But no one in the family could recall my brother, Bill, having a favourite colour. 

These are the colours I had come up with. I gave Cindy the option of which purple she wanted to represent her in the quilt: the medium dark second from the right or the ultra dark on the far right. She chose the medium dark. 
Nancy contacted our sister-in-law and I contacted my brother's son and daughter to see if any of them recalled Bill having a favourite colour. No one was aware of any. Since he was a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan, I suggested Maple Leaf blue and my sisters agreed. But I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in my LQS: nothing that was exactly the right colour and preferably in a tonal fabric. I didn't want really distinct patterns. Then I recalled the blue maple leaf print I had used in On Guard for Thee and I ended up having just enough for all of the blocks required. 
But before I got to that point, I had to actually decide how I was going to use all of these different fabrics. Initially, I considered using them all in the same block, or maybe just all in different places in the quilt top. Finally, I chose to use the Sister's Choice quilt block, a good choice, I think, since we're all sisters. 

For the background fabric in the blocks, I chose this fabric which features two hands being held in the shape of a heart. 

And I made a Sister's Choice quilt block out of each colour,

and since I had chosen a layout requiring 12 blocks, I used all 9 colours in the remaining three blocks. 

Once I had settled on a layout, I had to decide what fabric to use to fill in the squares between the blocks. I went back to the quilt shop to buy more of the word fabric, but there was a sale going on and they had already sold out. In hindsight, I think it's all for the best. I would have had lots of "fun" cutting all of those squares on the diagonal to keep the words going left to right. As it is, I thank God that I was able to get the words in the setting triangles all going in the right direction. However, that still left me with the quandary of what fabric to use for those alternate squares. I took home a metre each of two different fabrics that I felt pulled in most of the colours in the blocks to see if either of them would work. 

I didn't want anything to compete with the blocks, 

and wasn't really sure about either of these. So, I went back to the quilt shop and purchased a rose print that was from the same line as the word fabric. 

But it was very boring, and my family is anything but boring. So, I texted my youngest sister with the pictures of the other two fabrics. She chose the maple leaf fabric, and I agreed. The watercolour (or whatever you want to call the other print) is awesome, but it draws too much attention away from the quilt blocks, which are supposed to be the focus of the quilt. Besides, we're Canadian, so the maple leaf fabric is appropriate. 
While the quilt tops are identical, I chose to personalize each quilt, by using the fabric that represented the recipient in the quilt top as the binding fabric as well. Then I used that same colour for the minky backing, and the quilting thread. 

I did forewarn my sisters that I probably wouldn't get these quilts done quickly. I did, however, complete one relatively quickly just to see the overall effect. That one went to my youngest sister in time for her milestone birthday in March. That's hers at the top of the post. 

We nearly lost my oldest sister this summer to undiagnosed heart disease. She ended up having open heart surgery and is doing well now, thank the Lord. So her quilt was the next to go out in August, together with a Through My Window wallhanging as a get well gift. 

My middle sister also had a milestone birthday this year, in November. So I finished her quilt in time to send it with her birthday gift, my second Through My Window wallhanging. 

In late October, I finished the last one for my sisters, this one for the next oldest sister, that is closest to me in age, and got it shipped off. All that was left was mine.

But Christmas quilts, baking and cooking intervened and I didn't get mine finished until now - March of 2025. 

I chose the Hearts in Bloom pantograph for the quilting on each quilt.

Because Cindy and I both chose purple to represent us in the quilts, I used a minky dot for the backing on mine, so that there would be a difference in the backing.
And I don't ever want to make 5 of the same quilt again. By the time I got to mine, I felt like doing something goofy with the blocks, something to switch it up. But I restrained myself, because I did want us all to have the same quilt. It's just not likely to ever happen again. It's taken me about a year to get all 5 made. 

Cat Chow Placemats

Normally, my dining room table is covered with a quilted pad, followed by a tablecloth or table quilt. In the case of a tablecloth, it is then generally topped with a table runner or table topper. And finally, to cover it all, some clear plastic. While I admit that plastic on a table can be tacky, it does protect my table coverings from stains. However, I do find that a warm plate placed directly on the plastic can stick to the plastic a little bit. It doesn't actually melt the plastic because the plates are not hot enough - often just warm from the hot food placed on them, but it does tend to stick. So, I have been using a hot pot holder or trivet under my plate. But recently, I had been thinking that I should make some placemats - one for me, one for my daughter and one for my grandson for when they are here. A little more aesthetically pleasing than just using hot pot holders. I just had to decide on a pattern. Then one of my friends shared a picture to my Facebook wall of the Cat Chow Placemat and Coaster. I figured that was perfect, since all three of us love cats. 

But first, I had to find the pattern. I went to the original post, planning on doing a reverse image search on the photo. But I found that someone had already given the name of the book it was found in, and the author, in the comments. 
I went to Amazon and found that the price of the book was nearly $40. Ouch! That's a lot to just make 3 placemats, especially since I wasn't really impressed with most of the other patterns in the book. I'm really not into goofy, cartoonish-looking animals, which is most of what this book is full of. But I saw that it was an Annie's book, so then I went to the Annie's Attic website. And there I found that I could purchase a PDF download of Quilted Cats & Dogs for US$9.99. I was initially reluctant, again because I really didn't want the whole book. But when I googled cat placemat patterns and realized that it would cost me at least as much just to buy a single pattern as it would to purchase the whole book, and that I liked the pattern in the book better, I went for it. After all, I don't have to print out the whole book - just the pattern that I need. 

The pattern called for newspaper fabric for the background. I'm not really sure why, but I did happen to have cat-themed newspaper fabric in my stash of cat fabrics, so that worked well. I decided to do each cat in our favourite colours. Mine is purple, Sophia's is orange and Damian has a few favourites. Orange was his original favourite, but he has since added others, including teal. I used a fun, colourful fabric for the bows, leftovers from the Licorice Allsorts quilt backing. And I used heart shaped buttons for the centres of the bows. I had one red one, which I used on Damian's placemat, while Sophia's and mine got pink hearts. 
But getting to the finished product was a bit of a journey. My first issue was the tail. I had to cut two pieces from the fabric and one from the batting, stitch the fabric right sides together with the batting, and then turn the tail right side out. But when I looked at that tiny tail pattern, I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to turn it right side out. There just wouldn't be enough room. The tip of the tail pattern is only 5/8" across, and with a 1.4" seam on each side, it would be impossible. Nowhere in the pattern did it say to add seam allowance to the pattern, but that's what I had to do in order to make it work. 
The next issue was the fact that the placemats are made using the envelope method: stitching the three layers together with the backing and top right sides together, leaving an opening to turn. Then turn the project right side out and quilt. I know from personal experience that it's virtually impossible to get the quilt sandwich perfectly taut using this method, resulting in puckers and tucks when the item is quilted. I would prefer to quilt it first and then add binding. But with the tail sticking out of the side, binding was not an option. So I tried making the orange cat placemat using the envelope method. But the resulting quilting was so puckery. I try not to bring perfectionism into my quilting, but this just did not meet my standards of acceptability. So, what was I to do? I finally hit on the plan of using a false backing, something I've done in other projects that I didn't bind (Confetti Tree Skirt and Christmas Spice Blend table runner). So, I ripped out all of the stitching holding the first placemat together and redid it with a false backing. And I did the other 2 with the false backing, and quilted all 3. 
The third issue came with the cat's face. The pattern did not say to not include the mouth on the placemats. I'm not if they included it in the picture in the book, because where the mouth would be is covered by the bow. But in the pattern, it might look fine on the coaster, but it looks too large for the cat on the placemat. So, I left it out. I also had to figure out how to transfer the whisker pattern onto the placemat. There were no hints or tips for this. Fortunately, I had some gold tracing paper and that's what I used. And pinned the paper to the placemat where I wanted it, and stitched through the paper. The nice thing about this gold paper is that it's thin enough to tear off easily once the stitching is complete. But there also were no placement directions or measurements for the face or the eyes. No "1 inch down from the top seam" or anything like that. I just had to determine what I thought looked best. 
Finally, attaching the true backing to the placemats using the envelope method, I finished off by hand-stitching the openings and had my 3 Cat Chow Placemats. 

And this isn't the first time I've had a pattern with incomplete or incorrect instructions. It's frustrating. If I were not a relatively experienced quilter, would I be able to figure out what to do? Or just give up in frustration? Or just try to fumble and stumble my way through it?
But what about life? Life can often be pretty challenging and frustrating and puzzling. And do we just stumble and fumble our way through it, hoping we'll get things right. There are plenty of people out ther that are willing to tell us what to do. But who can we trust? It would be nice if we had a reliable guidebook for life. 
But we do. It's called the Bible. I know. There are plenty of theories and ideas out there that challenge its reliability. So, how do I know it's reliable? Is there any way to confirm its veracity? Let's see what the Bible actually says: 

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Isaiah 46:9,10 NKJV

Essentially, this text is saying that by God being able to tell the end from the beginning, we can know that He is God. In other words, the fulfillment of Bible prophecy is a demonstration of the Bible's - and God's - trustworthiness. 
So, let's briefly look at a Bible prophecy. We find it in Daniel 2. You can read the whole story there, if you choose, but I'll give you a little background first. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and sent his army against Jerusalem. Some of the young men from the royal family in Jerusalem were taken captive to Babylon to be trained as "wise men" (advisors) to king Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was one of these, and was a follower of God, while Nebuchadnezzar and most of his wise men were not.  
One night Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. When he woke up, he realized the dream was important, but couldn't remember it. None of his "senior advisors" (magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans, as the Bible puts it) could tell him the dream or what it meant. He got very angry and threatened to kill all of his wise men, including Daniel and his friends. When Daniel found out, he asked what the problem was and then asked for time. And he and his friends prayed, and God sent the answer. 

Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay

Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about a statue or image, divided into 5 sections, top to bottom, each of a different metal, with the feet being made of iron mixed with clay. As Daniel explained, each part represented a different kingdom and the kingdoms followed each other chronologically. The head of gold represented Babylon. While the remaining kingdoms were not named, we know from history that the silver represented Medo-Persia, the bronze represented Greece and the iron represented Rome. And that is exactly what happened: one nation ruled the then-known world after another. Until the fall of Rome. And that's when we come to the feet of iron and clay and we have never had a united world empire since. Men like Napoleon and Hitler have attempted it, but it has never succeeded. So this prophecy was fulfilled up to the feet, but there's a more exciting part of the prophecy yet to be fulfilled. A rock hits the image on the feet and totally destroys it, and the rock becomes a great mountain. That represents the return of Jesus, when life as we know it will end and He will make all things new and perfect. Most of the prophecy has already been fulfilled so I don't believe there is any reason to doubt the rest of it - that Jesus will return - will also be fulfilled. 
I know I've given a very quick and simplistic explanation, but I hope this fulfilled prophecy helps confirm for you the reliability of the Bible. If you want to look into it further, and other prophecies fulfilled and other reasons for trusting God and the Bible, here are some links to help.
The Millenial Man
Can God Be Trusted?

Is There Anything Left You Can Trust?

I'll Fly Away

If you were to ask me what my favourite colour is, I would say purple. While my preference is for the bluer, darker purples, I like all colours in the purple family. And most people, when I ask their favourite colour(s), say green or red or whatever. They don't get incredibly specific and say emerald green or scarlet... That is most people. However, recently when I asked a friend what his favourite colour is, he said "sky blue." Since I was planning on making him a quilt, that made it rather challenging. What I would consider sky blue and what he would consider sky blue are not necessarily the same thing. I rummaged through my fabric stash trying to come up with what would be sky blue, which only increased my unncertainty. I actually googled "sky blue" and that just made things more confusing because it came up with multiple colours. 

"Sky Blue" from Wikipedia

Then I thought, well if he wants sky blue, I will give him sky blue. I have several "sky" fabrics in my stash. Initially, I was going to make him the dolphin quilt, which includes both sea and sky fabrics and is on my quilting bucket list. But then I thought I don't have time to mess with applique, and I'm not sure which fabric to use for the dolphins. This was before Christmas and I had to finish 3 quilts I was giving as Christmas gifts, in addition to wanting to get this friend's quilt finished as well. The dolphin quilt became a UFO and I decided to try something different. I decided to pull several sky fabrics from my stash, figuring he could pick which blue he liked as "sky blue" out of the various blues in this quilt top.

I didn't have a metre or yard of each, so I couldn't use a 3-yard quilt pattern. Instead, I devised my own pattern, using stash fabrics. And I think it turned out pretty nice. I "borrowed" the blue minky dot fabric I was going to use as backing for Eccentric to use as backing for this one. (I then used some black minky from a UFO to back Eccentric). 

As for the quilting, I picked Airplanes in the Clouds, and that's how I got the name for the quilt, I'll Fly Away. 
Just a doctrinal note about the song by that name, I'll Fly Away. It's actually not Biblical because we don't go straight to heaven when we die. We go to heaven when Jesus returns and raises His followers to life. To learn more about this, you can read, Are the Dead Really Dead? Or click on Ghost Truth or Hell Truth in the sidebar on the right. 
And my friend liked his quilt and said it was the right colour. 

Moving on from quilts to my kitchen, in the world of economics, there is a principle called "economies of scale". In a nutshell, that means the bigger the customer base, the lower the prices. So, in a country like the United States, which has a population of over 333 million, it's only logical that most things are less expensive there than in Canada, with a population of 41 million. And that things in Ontario (population 14 million) are generally cheaper than in Alberta (population 4 million). But customer base not only affects prices, it also affects availability. Recently, in my small town in rural Alberta, I looked for wasabi powder and tamari. I couldn't find them anywhere. 
Just one of my pet peeves about too many of my cookbooks: price and availability of ingredients. And it came up because I made the Beet Burgers from this cookbook: 

Don't get me wrong - I really appreciate the work of the authors in producing this cookbook.And so far, I've been enjoying it. But I'm sure that it's a lot easier to find wasabi powder where they live than where I live. And it may be fine for them to put a whole cup of nutritional flake yeast in a recipe of 10 or 11 burgers (Wow!), but nutritional yeast is not cheap where I live. 
So, using expensive and hard to find ingredients is one of my biggest cookbook pet peeves. 

As for the burgers, they weren't bad, but not great. I used horseradish instead of wasabi powder, and maybe I should have used more. And I only had about 2/3 cup of nutritional yeast left, so that's all I used. Perhaps those contributed to the fact that I found them rather bland in taste, even with ketchup and mustard. I think they could have used some salt. But, for the most part, the recipes in this cookbook do not use added salt. 

Beet Burger with Grilled Pineapple, saurkraut and alfalfa sprouts

Which brings me to another pet peeve. Too many whole food, plant-based/vegan cookbook authors seem to think that flavour mostly consists of "hot", as in spicy hot: chili peppers, wasabi, black pepper, hot sauce, etc. And I'm not a big fan of "hot". I actually enjoy the flavours of lentils, chickpeas, navy beans, and seasonings like oregano and sage, flavours which just disappear in the onslaught of "hot". I remember years ago, after visiting a vegan restaurant, discussing it with a fellow vegan, and I told her that the food had been too hot. She responded that she felt that too many vegan cooks seem to try to make up for the absence of meat by the use of hot spices. Maybe that's it, because the fat in meat carries flavour. But I've eaten lots of delicious vegan food without it singeing my tongue. 
I had really wanted to like these Beet Burgers (and I still have 9 left) because they are so nutritious, but they are fairly labour-intensive for a burger I just found rather bland. In my many cookbooks, I have lots of burger recipes, many I know that I like, so I don't think I want to buy wasabi powder or play around with other seasonings to try and give these ones more zip. And using a whole cup of nutritional yeast seems rather excessive as well as expensive. So, I likely won't be repeating these burgers. 

Where Thistles Bloom

When I had my DNA tested, I expected my ethnicity to be roughly 50% Irish and 50% German. After all, my father was Irish and my mother was German, both of relatively recent migratory history. My father's mother was born in Ireland and his father's parents were born in Ireland. And my mother, and her parents and siblings were immigrants from Europe. I thought I might have a smattering of some other European DNA since my German ancestry didn't come directly from Germany, but from Serbia (which had been Yugoslavia, which had been the Serb-Croat-Slovene State, which had been Austro-Hungary...). But it wasn't my German ancestry that yielded any surprises. As a matter of fact, my DNA results show that I'm approximately 52% Germanic Europe (hmm, apparently, my father must have had enough Germanic ancestry to add that extra 2% 😂). No, the surpise was the 26% Scottish and only 18% Irish! Apparently, my paternal grandmother told one of my cousins that she was actually of Scottish descent, of Scottish nobility, no less. (Though I have yet to verify the nobility part). This cousin told my oldest sister, but my sister didn't tell me until my DNA did. How did I not know this? I don't recall my father ever mentioning it, and he was my grandmother's oldest son. So, if anyone ever knew it, it should have been him. But, as far as I recall, he was only ever Irish, or Canadian of Irish descent. 
So the origin with which I felt I more readily identified - the Irish - was less than a fifth of my DNA! While the Scottish ancestry, which I had no idea about, makes up a quarter of my DNA! I guess that explains why I love tartans and bagpipes.  I suppose I can just say I'm about half Germanic and half Celtic. 
Anyway, I've decided to explore more of the Scottish culture. Maybe I'll even try some vegan haggis for Robert Burns Night. I'm already good with neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes). And steel cut oats. 

I'd been admiring this fabric collection in my local quilt shop for awhile. I especially liked the thistle fabric. And it goes with my Scottish heritage! There were both layer cakes and jelly rolls available, and some precut metres and half metres. So, when the shop had a sale, I purchased a layer cake and a jelly roll. I have a pattern in one of my Craftsy courses that calls for both. If you've been following my blog for long, you're aware of my feelings about pre-cuts and their associated patterns. I find that often, instead of making the process more efficient and convenient, they end up making it more cumbersome and waste a lot of fabric. And using yardage for the patterns would be much more efficient than pre-cuts. But there are a few books and patterns out there that make the best use of them. Unfortunately, the Craftsy pattern fell into the former category, and not the latter. There was no way I was going to fiddle with using pieces of layer cake squares and jelly roll strips and have a whole lot of annoying leftovers. I still can't figure out why people design these patterns that don't use all or at least most of the pieces...
So, I had to find an alternate. 

I had picked up this book at the same sale when I picked up the Northern Star book, and decided to give it a look-through to see what I could find. Unfortunately, most of the patterns don't make great use of the layer cakes. But I found the "Final Four" pattern, that called for 2 layer cakes, much of which was being cut up into 2-1/2" wide pieces. Great, I could probably make it work with the jelly roll and layer cake combo that I had instead. And the finished size was big enough to fit a double bed, so when I got it done, I would finallly have one of my quilts to put on one of the beds in my house. (While I do have both a double and a queen-sized quilt that I made, both of them are very early projects and are in need of repair). 

Once I had all of the pieces cut, I then had to plan the layout. 

It took a lot of planning and fiddling to try to ensure I didn't have the same fabrics right beside each other. 

During the assembly process, I took pictures and kept my cell phone nearby to refer to in order to keep the fabrics in the correct place, and the directional fabrics going in the right direction. 

Meanwhile, I had to decide what pantograph was going to suit this quilt. I considered the Piper, a freebie from Meadow Lyon, which I had already downloaded, enlarged and traced onto a roll to make into a pantograph. But I opted instead to go with Purple Thistles, especially since the thistle fabric was my favourite of this line. 

And those are really huge thistles!

And while I started it way back in April of 2024, I was able to finish it on December 31st, so I finished it in the same year as it was started, which doesn't happen too often for me, especially not for bed-sized quilts. 
Now, to see if I can get quilts made for the other beds in my house. And maybe get a better dust ruffle for this one... 

Christmas in Bloom

The past couple of Christmases, I paid for my daughter's AMA (Alberta Motor Association) membership as her Christmas gift. It's useful, it's practical and it doesn't take up any room, other than a card in her wallet. But I also wanted her to have something to open on Christmas morning. In addition to the usual Christmas stocking stuff, I also chose to make her a Christmas snuggle quilt. 

This is one of the few quilts I have made in which all of the fabrics in the quilt top are from the same fabric line. And it's lovely fabric. It features amyrillises (I had to google that to find out what the plural was), but it also has snowflakes and Christmas baubles. 

Choosing the thread wasn't a big deal as I just opted for the Affinity thread Christmas blend that I have in my stash. I love variegated thread, like I love variegated yarn. But for the most part, I find neither is worth the added expense, because both are more expensive than solids. With the yarn, I find that the pattern of the stitches - whether knit or crochet - disappears in the colour variegations. Especially when the variegations are more pronounced, like in the Mistletoe and Lace afghan or the Lace Enchantment afghan. In both of those, I really can't even see the actual design of the afghans because the colours are shouting so loud. When it comes to thread,, it's almost the opposite. The colour variations basically disappear against a varied print quilt top. Nevertheless, I own the thread, so I might as well use it. 

Picking a pantograph for the quilting was a little more challenging. If I had an amaryllis pantograph, I likely would have chosen it. I considered the Easter Lily pantograph, because amaryllises do look similar to lilies, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. I've seen a Christmas ornaments panotgraph that I likely would have used if I owned it. None of my other Christmas pantographs seemed suitable. except for Snow Winds. As I've mentioned, I've probably used that pantograph more than any of my others. So, Snow Winds it was. 
I used a red with white snowflake print fleece/minky backing, which I have used before in both Boxes and Bows and Christmas Sweaters. 
The quilt pattern is Allure from Fabric Cafe's book, "The Magic of 3-Yard Quilts". 

On the home front, I finally made it outside today. It was -21°C, with a wind chill of -31. But Peter wanted to go to Walmart and I was getting cabin fever from being inside so long. So I plugged in the block heater on the truck about an hour and a half before I was planning to leave, and it started fine. And when I got home, since I was already bundled up, I dumped the compost and took a few small bags of trash to the dumpster. Then I was happy to come back inside. I did plug the block heater back in again. Since this cold weather is expected to last for at least another week, I figured it's better to leave it plugged in and have the truck ready in case I need it. 

Dancing Snowflakes

 It's been so cold lately that this morning I was reminded of this limerick:

There was a young man from Quebec
Who was buried in snow to his neck.
When asked, "Are you friz?"
He replied, "Yes, I is,
"But we don't call this cold in Quebec."

Though personally, I would change it to Alberta, if it only rhymed with something appropriate. I don't know if Quebec gets the extreme cold temperatures that we do. Currently, at around 8:45 a.m., it's -20°C (about -4°F), but the forecast is for it to go down to -32°C (about -25.6°F) overnight. Fortunately, it's not too windy, so there's no significant wind chill factor. And at least it's not in the -40s. We do get those temperatures occasionally. 
I have been hunkering down at home, only venturing out once recently when Peter (my nephew that lives nearby) asked if I could take him to Walmart. Peter moved here from Victoria, BC, which is basically Canada's banana belt, about a year ago. He didn't even own a proper winter coat and boots because the winters are so mild there. And he doesn't have a driver's licence, because he didn't really need it in a big city with a good transit system. He's not afraid to walk - even in this frigid weather - but Walmart is a little far, especially if you have to turn around and carry your purchases home. Including an 18 kg (about 40 lb) box of kitty litter. 
My compost buckets are full, almost to overflowing, but I've been reluctant to get all bundled up just to carry them out to the composter. If the temperature were above -10, I would just throw on my boots and run them out there, without worrying about coat, toque, gloves... 
We've also had a little bit more snow and ideally, I would go out and clear that away. But I'm still debating on whether it's enough to justify braving the cold. It's not enough to run the snow blower. And my snow removal guy has not been very reliable lately...
Anyway, I'm still catching up on blogging about my Christmas projects. When I officially retired this past September, I got my vacation pay paid out, so I asked my daughter about getting my grandson a new bed. I bought him his first bed from Ikea years ago once he was out of his crib. It was a great bed for a young child as it was low to the floor, with a not very thick mattress. But it was no longer a great bed for a child of his age. So, I figured that this was likely the last time I would receive a relatively substantial sum of money all at once, now that I was retired, and offered to buy him a new bed for his Christmas gift. Of course he got it as soon as I bought it in the fall. But I still wanted him to have something to open on Christmas morning. Amongst his other gifts from Grandma, I made him this quilt, which I called Dancing Snowflakes. 

It's uniquely coloured for a Christmas quilt, and the fabric isn't necessarily specifically Christmas. The black and grey fabrics are snowflakes and the beige is reindeer and ivy. (I apologize for the fuzziness of the picture. It seems that the resolution on my camera is inconsistent). It was one of those situations where I wasn't sure if I was going to like the fabric combination. But I do. I love it. I find it very classy, and if this quilt hadn't been going to my grandson, I would have been tempted to keep it. 
The backing is a blue snowflake fleece/minky, which I've used before as backing on Let It Snow. It's deeper and softer than most minky fabrics I've used, and is oh, so cuddly, which my grandson loves. Even though he doesn't generally get cold at night, he loves the fleece sheets that I bought him. He just loves the snuggle factor. 

I used the Snow Winds pantograph for the quilting. As someone who owns 174 pantographs (with 8 more on the way), many of them have yet to be used and of the ones I have used, most have only been used once or twice. Snow Winds, on the other hand, I have used multiple times. I guess because it works well with so many Christmas and winter themed quilts. I only own two snowflake pantographs, the other one being Deb's Snowflake Meander. The quilting is a little more dense in that one, so not necessarily one I want to use with a minky backing. Plus it's 15.5" wide, which is really pushing the limits of the throat space on my Amara. I think I've only used that one once. I prefer to work with pantographs around 12" wide. 

The thread I used for the quilting was this Aurilux, which is a polyester thread that used to be made by Aurifil. I'm not sure why they discontinued it, but I bought quite a few mini cones in various colours when a thread vendor was selling it out. It's beautiful thread, but can be horrible to work with. It wasn't till I discovered that I needed to keep the quilt fairly loose on the frame when using variegated thread that I was able to use it successfully on quilts. And I still approach using it with trepidation. 
The pattern for this quilt is Button Box, from Fabric Cafe's book, "Quilts in a Jiffy". Have I mentioned how much I love 3-yard quilts? They are generally quick and easy and are the perfect size for snuggle quilts. 
And, of course, if you've been following my blog, you also know that I love to challenge myself with new quilting techniques, complex quilt blocks, etc., not just quick and simple. But right now, I should exercise. Normally, I try to do it before breakfast, but I got up late and I still want to fit it in...